Wednesday, April 26, 2017

As blogged about a season ago, this version uses seitan patties as per The Edgy Veg's chicken seitan patties, again using sesame oil in place of the tahini, and getting 8 patties to a batch. From there, I opted not to go with the pickle juice marinade, but instead used homemade egg replacement powder with about ¼ tsp of yellow mustard (as I didn't have any dry mustard for the KFC dredge) as the wet part of my dredge. I otherwise hewed very closely to the Original KFC dredge recipe, having only to replace the garlic salt with garlic powder.

I've been on — understandably — something of a vegan recipe video binge this week, and saw that some people who make seitan squeeze some of the excess liquid out before dredging. I did that with this patty and vastly prefer the result to the unpressed seitan patties I've used in the past.

For being three days into eating meat-free, I'm frankly surprised at how satisfying all of the food has been so far. It looks like I'll be enjoying tonight's dinner of KFC-style seitan with potato wedges.

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Vegan for a week!

We had roast beef at mom and dad's on the 16th, steak dinner on the 19th, and yet more roast beef for dinners starting on the 21st, skipping a day and finally ending the onslaught of beef dinners on the evening of the 23rd. I was ready to go meatless for a while. Right now, I'm officially eating vegan, but I might let up a bit later in the week and allow eggs and/or fish.

Kara opted to have President's Choice Meat Lasagna — her favourite — with her dad for dinners early this week, and I chose to make up a batch of Mary's Test Kitchen's Beefy Seitan so that I could use up the cheesesteak-style toppings (shallots/onions, green bell peppers, mushrooms, and Daiya I gathered last week — knowing how much beef we'd be eating — yet neglected to use.

The seitan really does benefit from a bit of extra browning in an oiled pan and I think I'll try doubling the amount of flavouring agents in it the next time I make it. The resultant mock meat is most reminiscent of beef, but lacks the assertive flavour, despite the fact that the "broth" component smelled beefy. Still, it makes for a delicious lunch which I've been eating on "buttered" toast with Chipotle Vegenaise. Definitely not for cheesesteak purists, but amazing in its own right.

For yesterday's dinner, I made up a batch of green coconut curry rice as per The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions recipe for Red Coconut Curry Rice, substituting short grain brown rice for the Jasmine rice called for in the recipe, sunflower seed butter in place of the peanut butter, and green curry paste in place of the red. I stir-fried sliced carrot, onion, mushrooms, and green beans to serve over the rice. This marked the second time I've made this rice recipe and it's safe to say I love it.

For dessert, I ate a couple of vegan, date-sweetened brownies. They're the result of a recipe I've been working on for a while and am just about ready to publish, so stay tuned.

About Me

I'm a woman of mixed-race, so my food interests tend towards multicultural. I'm also a mom, which means that I've oftentimes had to adapt my favourite foods to be kid-friendly. Amongst my food allergies/sensitivities, I'm lactose-intolerant, can't eat many tree nuts and stone fruits, have difficulty eating the "dirty dozen" and other pesticide-heavy produce, and seem to have developed an egg yolk sensitivity.